“At Bristol, in banks and places,” answered his companion.
“It were,” said the cook; “it were when we weighed anchor. But
my old missis has it all by now. And the Spy-glass is sold, lease and
goodwill and rigging; and the old girl’s off to meet me. I would tell
you where, for I trust you, but it’d make jealousy among the
mates.”

“And can you trust your missis?” asked the other.
“Gentlemen of fortune,” returned the cook, “usually trusts little
among themselves, and right they are, you may lay to it. But I have
a way with me, I have. When a mate brings a slip on his cable--one
as knows me, I mean--it won’t be in the same world with old John.
There was some that was feared of Pew, and some that was feared
of Flint; but Flint his own self was feared of me. Feared he was,
and proud. They was the roughest crew afloat, was Flint’s; the
devil himself would have been feared to go to sea with them. Well
now, I tell you, I’m not a boasting man, and you seen yourself how
easy I keep company, but when I was quartermaster, LAMBS
wasn’t the word for Flint’s old buccaneers. Ah, you may be sure of
yourself in old John’s ship.”

“Well, I tell you now,” replied the lad, “I didn’t half a quarter
like the job till I had this talk with you, John; but there’s my hand
on it now.”

“And a brave lad you were, and smart too,” answered Silver,
shaking hands so heartily that all the barrel shook, “and a finer
figurehead for a gentleman of fortune I never clapped my eyes
on.”

By this time I had begun to understand the meaning of their
terms. By a “gentleman of fortune” they plainly meant neither
more nor less than a common pirate, and the little scene that I had